Co-owner of The Gourmet Parlour in Bridge Street Sligo and Collooney, Annette Burke found her true calling when a chance conversation with friends introduced her to Ballymaloe. That was more than 30 years ago but her enthusiasm and love for baking and hospitality hasn’t dimmed at all.
A Sligo native, Annette was brought up in a household where home cooking was valued. Her mother was a prizewinning home baker and instilled a love of cooking and respect for good ingredients in the young Annette. Although Home Economics was her favourite subject in school, she pursued an office-based career at first, studying office skills at Sligo IT. She began working with McMorrow Auctioneers and the Irish Nationwide Building Society in Sligo, which soon brought her to the bright lights of Dublin City, where she enjoyed all the city had to offer.
However, things took a different track one momentous evening when friends told her about a new cookery school at Ballymaloe. Annette was intrigued and phoned for a brochure immediately. From that moment her office days were numbered. A recce trip to Ballymaloe had her hooked, especially as she met Darina Allen whose enthusiasm more than matched Annette’s own. She signed up instantly.
Annette adored that course and the whole ethos of Ballymaloe. She stayed on in the Cookery School, taking a job there for a year before moving to Ballymaloe House where she worked under the late Myrtle Allen, the woman who almost singlehandedly put Irish cooking on the international map. The emphasis on food provenance and value put on cooking from scratch learned at Ballymaloe has been brought through into everything The Gourmet Parlour does today. Real cooking, done well.
At Ballymaloe she met Catherine Farrell from Kilkenny who was to become her close friend and business partner. They had a bit of living to do first though and the ski slopes of France were their first stop. The pair took a chalet catering job in La Plagne and fell madly in love with both skiing and France. Their food was so good the chalet was never less than packed and they relished the challenge involved.
Returning to Ireland Annette and Catherine found a premises in Sligo and set up The Gourmet Parlour, using all their knowledge to create a successful business. Over the years they’ve adapted to suit contemporary tastes, but their ethos remains as it always was – using the best ingredients, peeling their own apples and banishing ready-made anything from the premises. It’s great food, cooked with flair and love. Darina Allen still stays in touch – and orders a Battenburg Cake every Christmas.
Family life is also very important to Annette who has four active children and is married to Martin. She’s pretty active herself too, enjoying the occasional ski holiday, playing tennis, cycling and running. She’s also a convert to swimming in the sea and as Santa brought her a wetsuit, she has no excuses now. Except perhaps a lack of time …
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